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Our Early Careers programme is an essential part of QinetiQ; it is one of the ways we develop people to ensure we have the right capabilities for the future.

As we celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, we are delighted that our graduate/apprentice intake for 2018 is approximately 90 recruits. We will also have some summer placement and Year in Industry students within the business, further strengthening our teams.

Some key facts and stats about this year’s Early Careers events, focus areas and people are here:

We are developing the focus of our QinetiQ Apprentice Training School from its current core of aerospace, mechanical and electrical/electronic (Level 3) apprenticeships to include higher level apprenticeships, meeting our emerging needs. Building on the national movement for higher level apprenticeship programmes, we are taking a novel approach that will challenge traditional thinking around graduate development by replacing some Bachelors graduates with degree level apprenticeships (Level 6) and even Masters level apprenticeships (Level 7). As a leader in this field, through programmes such as The 5% Club, we are keen to ensure that we continue to develop our Early Careers programme to keep it current, thought provoking and a symbol of our capabilities.

It is an exciting time to be an apprentice at QinetiQ as the opportunities increase. Apprenticeship training is becoming broader and more varied, covering the full spectrum of technical and business functions. Apprenticeship were traditionally for new starters; however, recent changes mean that apprenticeships are also an option for current employees. Anyone can now undertake an apprenticeship as part of their development plan, either in a higher level than current qualifications in the same or similar subject matter, or at any level if the subject matter is substantially different from current qualifications.

To support young people moving into employment, we have recently joined the national Movement to Work programme. This seeks to tackle youth unemployment through the provision of high quality work experience and vocational training opportunities. We will integrate this into our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) activities to attract apprentices and graduates across geographically focused areas. We hope this will generate new applicants to our wider graduate and apprenticeship programmes, helping to support the Movement to Work objectives.